Brain Fitness Program - Pillar 1 Engage Your Brain This content is intended for individual use and may not be distributed for group purposes ...
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Brain Fitness Program
Pillar 1
Engage Your Brain
This content is intended for individual use and may not be
distributed for group purposes without written permission.
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A free membership program for people 55
and better, promoting healthy aging through
education, social activities and volunteerism.
Welcome to the Celebrate Seniority at-home Brain Fitness program.
This program is based on the six pillars of brain health and will help support
those interested in understanding their brain health and challenging themselves.
Each packet will focus on one of the following pillars of brain health (modeled
after Healthy Brains by Cleveland Clinic):
1. Engage your brain
2. Connect with others
3. Adopt a healthy diet
4. Exercise regularly
5. Get refreshing sleep
6. Reduce stress and maintain a healthy blood pressure level
Each packet will include stimulating puzzles with answers, activities, pillar
specific information and additional resources. To download additional packets
and watch related videos, visit mulitcare.org/volunteers/celebrate-seniority/.
Brain Fitness Team:
Celebrateseniority@multicare.org
Deborah Gurney (253) 697-7386
Alissa Rooks (253) 697-7389
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Brain Health Pillar 1: Engage Your Brain
The Main Idea - your brain needs mental exercise to be fit, just like muscles.
This means doing something challenging and different than your normal routine.
To help your brain create new neuron paths, you need to work at exercising your
brain for eight hours a week for six weeks with increased difficulty.
In this packet there are puzzles and other suggestions to engage your brain.
A few examples of daily activities that can challenge our brain include:
• Drive a new route to common destinations
• Brush your teeth with your non-dominate hand
• Memorize something you do not have memorized
• Wear your watch upside down
A few examples of challenging workouts for your brain beyond puzzles:
• Learn about bird identification – We suggest looking up online (and smart
phone app) EBird.com. You can share your sightings, learn information
attracting birds and much more.
• Learn to crochet or knit – Always ask a friend, but we have learned by
watching YouTube videos.
• Learn a new line dance – A fun easy source online is LearntoDance.com
• Learn a new foreign language or refresh an old one you knew long ago.
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Debunking Myths
About the Aging Brain
7 FACTS ABOUT YOUR BRAIN
MYTH FACT
You are born with all
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Neurons are continually created throughout
the neurons that your your life in areas of the brain through a process
brain will ever have. called neurogenesis.
You can’t learn new
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Learning can happen at any age when you get
things when you involved with cognitively stimulating activities
are old. like meeting new people or trying new hobbies.
Researchers have made great strides in
3 We don’t really know
how the brain works.
understanding the brain in recent years.
The field of neuroscience is at the cusp of
new and exciting breakthroughs.
Dementia is not a normal part of aging. There
4 Dementia is an inevitable
consequence of old age.
is a big difference between typical age-related
changes in the brain and those that are caused
by disease.
While it may seem simpler for kids—with
5 Only young people can
learn a new language.
simpler sentence structures and a lack of
self-consciousness—your age isn’t a limitation
in learning a new language.
Remembering details is easier for some people
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than others, but this is true of all ages. There are
Older people are doomed strategies to help remember names, facts, etc.
to forget things. and paying closer attention can often help you
remember better.
A person who has Keep practicing your memory skills. “Use it or
7 memory training
never forgets.
lose it” applies to memory training in the same
way it applies to maintaining your physical health.
Engage your Brain: GCBH Recommendations on Cognitively Stimulating Activities;
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Don't let age limit you. You
Healthy Aging Requires You To have the ability to change
Challenge Your Brain
your brain at any age.
The evidence today regarding
the benefits of what most people
consider “brain games” is weak
to non-existent. TIP 1
Find new ways to
stimulate your brain
and challenge the
way you think.
TIP 2
Choose activities that
involve both mental
engagement and
physical exercise.
TIP 3
Seek out mentally-
stimulating activities
that incorporate social
The GCBH defines cognitively- engagement and
stimulating activities as mentally-
greater purpose,
engaging activities or exercises
that challenge a person’s ability
such as volunteering
to think. or mentoring.
Engage your Brain: GCBH Recommendations on Cognitively-Stimulating Activities;6
Look at Page # 12 for potential answers.
Trail Categories
Fill in the boxes with words or terms that begin with each of the
letters in TRAIL. Add your own category in the last row.
T R A I L
Two-Syllable
Words
Plants
Things
Associated
with a Hotel
4-Letter
Words
Verbs
Your Choice
©ActivityConnection.com7
Sudoku
The Rules of Sudoku
1. Every row, column, and 3x3 box must contain each number (1 to 9) exactly once.
2. The sum of all numbers in any 3x3 box, row, or column must match the small number
printed in its corner. For traditional Sudoku puzzles featuring the numbers 1 to 9, this
sum is equal to 45.
This is an important point to review as it isn’t uncommon for inexperienced players to get
frustrated and to abandon the techniques we will lay out below. Don’t do it! In order to solve
Sudoku puzzles reliably, you must be disciplined, focused, and patient.
How to Solve Sudoku Puzzles
There are three main sudoku solving techniques that can be used to solve a Sudoku puzzle;
Counting, Crosshatching and Penciling In. These techniques are simple, straightforward,
reliable, and sufficient in solving most standard Sudoku puzzles.
It is important to understand that all Sudoku puzzles require a mathematical approach. Except
for in the case of the simplest puzzles, players will have to visit each 3x3 box more than one
time. Fortunately, each successive application of the solution techniques yields more
completed cells.
1) Counting
In counting you simply count 1-9 in a row, column and region that connects to one cell. If there
is just one number missing, then that’s what should be in the cell.
2) Crosshatching
To begin with we will want to use the Crosshatching technique.
With this technique, a player considers a single nonet (a single 3×3
square) and attempts to fill in empty cells based on the fact that a
number can only appear once in any row or column.
By looking across each row and down each column, we can
determine if a number can or cannot go in a cell. Let’s look at an
example to help illustrate the Crosshatching technique.8
3) Penciling In
Penciling in possible solutions for empty squares becomes
crucial as sudoku puzzles get harder. But you're not guessing
when you pencil in. You're simply listing the possible solutions.
Now you can try one of these techniques on the Sudoku puzzle on the next page.9
Sudoku
Fill in the grid so that all nine columns down, all nine rows across, and
all nine 3-by-3 boxes contain the numbers 1 through 9.
A number appears in each column, row, or box only once.
4 5 1 7 2
2 3 1
1 3 7 4
9 3 5 8
1 2 5 8 4 3 7
8 7 6 9
1 4 7 2 5
7 2
5 4 6 1
Find the answers on Page # 13
©ActivityConnection.com10 Try This Standing Balance Ball Toss Best for hand-eye coordination. Start by keeping both feet on the floor. (For a challenge balance on one leg with the opposite leg lifted at 90 degrees at the hip and knee, like taking a step up.) Use a tennis ball, Pilates ball or a soft medicine ball and toss the ball into the opposite hand. The eyes should follow the ball. Then switch legs and toss the ball to your opposite hand. Repeat a total of 10 times, daily. Why Try This? When you perform even a simple movement, it involves a huge amount of activity in the brain. Even something as simple as catching a ball requires you to plan the movement, decide to act, calculate speed, weight and trajectory, identify the position of your body in space and more – all in a fraction of a second. The cerebellum is at the back of the brain, below the cerebrum. It controls balance, movement, and coordination (how your muscles work together). Because of your cerebellum, you can stand upright, keep your balance, and move around.
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Word Web
Use the letters in the spider web to create words.
Each word must contain the letter in the center of the web.
Find 1 seven-lettered word Find 1 six-lettered word
Find 3 five-lettered words Find 7 four-lettered words
Find 8 three-lettered words
©ActivityConnection.com
Find some of the possible answers on Page # 1412
Trail Categories
(possible answers)
T R A I L
thirteen river about inlet loving
Two-Syllable
Thursday rainbow again iron lady
Words
tiger rabbit amber Irish London
tulip rose amaryllis iris lily
Plants tobacco radish aloe vera ivy lavender
trillium rhododendron azalea impatiens larkspur
Things towel room amenities indoor pool lobby
Associated twin bed reservation armchair alarm ice machine linens
with a Hotel table restaurant internet luggage
task roam arid icon list
4-Letter
tire root aqua into lead
Words
tuba raid also item loop
throw reach ask inspire lock
Verbs tickle remove arrange ignore leave
trim ride answer itch laugh
Your Choice
©ActivityConnection.com13
Sudoku
(solution)
3 4 5 8 1 7 6 2 9
7 2 6 3 9 4 1 5 8
8 9 1 2 6 5 3 7 4
4 7 9 1 2 3 5 8 6
1 6 2 5 8 9 4 3 7
5 3 8 7 4 6 9 1 2
9 1 3 4 7 2 8 6 5
6 8 7 9 5 1 2 4 3
2 5 4 6 3 8 7 9 114
Word Web
(solution)
Find 1 seven-lettered word Find 1 six-lettered word
tractor carrot
Find 3 five-lettered words Find 7 four-lettered words
actor cart
tract taro
tarot coat
taco
Find 8 three-lettered words tart
act roar
oat tact
tar
arc
car
tat
art
rat
Give yourself a bonus for finding any words that are not on the list. Email your core,
first name, and city to celebrateseniority@multicare.org – top 10 finishers will be
published.You can also read
